Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Part III of the Convention. Regulation of fee-charging employment agencies. In reply to the points raised in the 2004 direct request, the Government indicates that no payments shall be demanded nor any deductions made from wages of any employee for services rendered by an employment agency or employment business in line with section 10 of the Employment Agencies Regulations 1995, as amended by Legal Notices Nos 96 and 424 of 2007. The Government indicates that the Employment Agencies Regulation also provides that no person shall carry on an employment agency or an employment business unless he or she is the holder of a current licence granted by the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations. Such a licence is issued for a period of one year and it may be renewed for further periods, each of one year. The Committee recalls that in all its previous comments, it has requested indications on how effect is given to Articles 10(c) and 11(b) of the Convention, which require approval by the competent authority for the determination of the scale of fees. The Committee invites the Government to provide in its next report further information on the manner in which fee-charging employment agencies only charge fees and expenses on a scale submitted to and approved by the competent authority or fixed by the latter, in accordance with the abovementioned provisions of the Convention.

Revision of Convention No. 96. The Committee refers to its General Survey of 2010 on employment instruments in which it recalled that public employment services and private actors are both actors in the labour market. They should therefore mutually benefit from cooperation as their common aim is to ensure a well-functioning labour market and the achievement of full employment. With regard to those countries such as Malta, that have accepted Part III of Convention No. 96, the Committee recalled that, while Articles 10–14 of Convention No. 96 provide for the regulation of fee-charging employment agencies, the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), is more specific and takes into account newer developments in the sector and national circumstances (General Survey, op. cit., paragraph 728). The Committee notes that the present situation is not in conformity with the provisions of Part III of Convention No. 96 of 1949, as accepted by Malta when it ratified the Convention in 1988. The Committee hopes that the Government and the social partners will consider adhering to the obligations of the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), the ratification of which involves the immediate denunciation of Convention No. 96. It invites the Government to report on steps taken, in consultation with the social partners, to ratify Convention No. 181.

[The Government is invited to reply in detail to the present comments in 2012.]